Back in the washer

All night, crazy weather. Strong winds, speed up to 8 knots and lots of
rolling. Early this morning, it became obvious that we were going to
fast with the risk of arriving at the entrance of Aviatu in the middle
of the night and inclement weather. So I dropped the main and rolled up
the genoa to reduce the speed to 4.5 knots, which should get us to
Aviatu around 7 in the morning.
Unfortunately, since then, the wind has dropped, the sky became
overcast, we have that long and heavy swell that sometimes causes us to
roll very heavily. I increased speed again to maintain the 4.5 knots,
but I must admit that I do not like the weather at all. It does not feel
established, rather in a standing by position before it decides either
to unleash some kind of hell or just keep going like that undecided. I
wish I had a crystal ball to see what will happen in the next 12 hours.
Considering that we slowed down to 4 knots at 8 this morning, the past
day figures are looking good. 148 miles over the ground, 445 total since
we left, closing on Rarotonga by 137 miles with 204 to go.
This morning I sent emails to Rarotonga to try and find out at which
point weather conditions start to make the entrance not safe. If there
is any risk in going in, we will just keep sailing on toward Neiafu.